Letter to the Editor

A nightmare experience over eating out in Cayman

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Dear Sir,

My wife and I eat out a lot here on Grand Cayman and have always had very mixed experiences with both the service and food. 

This previous Sunday was by far the worst. We stopped at a particular establishment for a simple bagel, a Danish and two cups of tea and in turn had the most awful breakfast experience that we have ever had. 

There were screaming children running amok whose parents were cheerfully doing their best to ignore them; a staff that obviously did not want to be there at 10:00 on a Sunday morning and a selection of food that seemed to be left over from the previous day. 

They were out of hot water and, when informed, made us wait 10 minutes before someone bothered to refill the carafe. 

The dining room was dirty and uncleaned and littered with the breakfast remains of the previous patrons. 

Our order was held for 15 minutes as someone accidentally left my bagel on the cutting board to wander off to talk to a co-worker. 

When I brought this to their attention I was told to help myself and had to walk around behind the counter to retrieve my bagel. I was then informed that the toasters were faulty and not working, and if I wanted an extra cream cheese it "was going to cost me". 

During the whole melee the staff seemed to try to hide from both the customers and their duties that extended beyond taking money from behind the counter. It was as if they knew things in the dining room were going very poorly and did not wish to deal with any of the unhappy customers or even attempt to make things right. 

Now I understand that those in the food service industry must work long hours and deal with an assortment of mostly ungrateful individuals. And I also understand that the situation is heightened here on the island with the hurried tourists breezing through and expecting the same level of service that they are accustomed to onboard their cruise ships. 

But that does not give those who work in this industry the excuse to take an apathetic attitude toward all customers who enter their establishment. 
Those of us who have lived, shopped and eaten out here have shamefully become all too familiar with bad service and over-priced restaurant bills. 

A typical night out can easily cost up to CI$100 for a nice dinner. Unfortunately, these are hit and miss here on the island. Too many times have we paid and walked out of a restaurant to later agree to never go back inside due to either poor service or food that in no way equalled the bill with which we were presented. 

Regrettably this probably does not phase most of the restaurateurs because they can always rely on the visitors to venture in, lured by the hope presented to them with an inviting exterior and the vague implied promises of a meal experience worth their hard-earned vacation money on our beautiful Caribbean paradise.

We live here 365 days a year and eat out probably twice a week for either lunches or dinners. We refuse to waste our money on over-priced poorly served meals. 

Neither my wife nor I will eat at that particular restaurant again after our experience on that fateful Sunday. It will now be added to the list of other restaurants that have offered up a distasteful incident topped with apathy towards our complaints. 

B D Hamilton

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